Could Jerry Brown’s political career really be ending?

Brown, who will turn 80 on April 7, has so far spent 15 years in the governor’s seat, first from 1975 to 1983, when he beat Republicans Houston Flournoy and Evelle Younger, and most recently, since 2011, after he beat Meg Whitman and Neel Kashkari.

Along the way, it seems, Brown has held nearly every other job in state politics. He was elected to the Los Angeles Community College Board in 1969. He also has been state attorney general, secretary of state, mayor of Oakland and chairman of the California Democratic Party. Oh, and he ran for president three times, in 1976, 1980 and 1992, and lost a race for U.S. Senate to Pete Wilson in 1982.

Finally term-limited out of the governor’s office, his career is over, right?

Maybe not, according to the jokes at Brown’s state-of-the-state speech in Sacramento on Thursday.

“It is quite an honor to be part of Gov. Brown’s 16th and final — we think — state of the state address,” Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon said in his introduction. “I’m assuming its the final one, but if there’s anyone who could convince voters to extend term limits it’s our governor. He says he’s done. I don’t know.”

In an interview published this week, Brown, whose father Pat was governor from 1959 to 1967, was asked by New York Times reporter Adam Nagourney if his days of running for office are finally over.

“I think it’s getting close to the end,” Brown said, as his dog, Colusa, slept in the next chair. “I think I’m going to be O.K. with that.”

Never one to close the door entirely, Brown could still run for president in 2020. Or Congress. Or be named a judge somewhere, even as an octogenarian.

On Thursday, as he took the podium in the Capitol to loud applause from legislators, he toyed with the issue again.

“As my father used to say,” Brown said smiling broadly, “I accept the nomination.”